Disgruntled Patient Forces Lockdown of Emory Decatur Hospital

A patient who was recently discharged triggered a lockdown at Emory Decatur Hospital on Nov. 3, after he called the police and said he would shoot anyone who approached him, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC). The patient, who Atlanta police identified as 42-year-old Ivan Boyd, called 911 to make his threat soon after leaving the hospital, the AJC reported.

Police dispatch arrived at the scene at 3:30 p.m. and found Boyd locked in the back of a landscaping truck. Lee Farley, a contractor who was at the scene, convinced Boyd to enter the truck after offering to drive him to get help, according to the police report.

After three hours of communication with Boyd over a loudspeaker, the police got Boyd to surrender at 6:30 p.m. Boyd was never carrying a firearm, according to the police, and it is unknown if he will face criminal charges, the AJC reported.

Media Outlets Stop Running ‘Racist’ Trump Ad

CNN, NBC, Fox and Facebook have refused to air an ad from President Donald J. Trump’s re-election campaign that has been criticized as racist. The ad, which was released days before the 2018 midterm elections, links the Democratic party to the caravan of migrants heading to the U.S. and Mexico border and an illegal immigrant convicted of murdering two police officers. Trump said to reporters on Monday that he was unaware of the controversy.

CNN declined to run the ad, calling it “racist.” NBC, Fox and Facebook all allowed the ad to run but later stopped its circulation. NBC released a statement on Monday saying that it would “cease airing [the ad] across our properties as soon as possible” following criticism after the ad appeared during the network’s “Sunday Night Football Segment” on Nov. 4.

Fox News also decided to pull the ad retroactively, stating that it violated the companies advertising policy, according to a Monday statement.

Senate Republicans Find No Evidence for Kavanaugh Accusations

Investigators on the Senate Judiciary Committee found no evidence supporting allegations of sexual assault against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, whose confirmation was embattled by several accusations of sexual assault against him, the Senate Judiciary Committee announced on Nov. 3.

The 414-page investigative report states that investigators did not find any credible evidence to support Christine Blasey Ford’s claim that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when the two were in high school.

The report also finds that witnesses failed to corroborate Ford’s allegations and at times contradicted her claims. Deborah Ramirez and Julie Swetnick’s allegations of sexual misconduct also lacked sufficient supporting evidence, the report said.

Kavanaugh denied the allegations during an emotional Senate hearing and was confirmed to the U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 6.

Scientists Unify Against Legal Binary Definition of Gender

More than 1,600 scientists, including eight from Emory, signed a letter condemning President Donald J. Trump’s administration’s consideration of legally defining gender as binary and determined at birth, according to The New York Times. The letter was written in response to a memo from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services asking federal agencies to define sex as either female or male and resolve gender disputes through genetic testing. The scientists argue that the scientific community is still researching the relationship between biological sex and gender identity: “This proposal is fundamentally inconsistent not only with science, but also with ethical practices, human rights, and basic dignity,” the letter reads. “The relationship between sex chromosomes, genitalia and gender identity is complex and not fully understood.” The letter also disapproves of the idea that a person’s gender identity can be revealed by a genetic test. In the U.S. alone, 1.4 million adults identify as transgender and 0.05 percent of babies born in the U.S. are intersex and thus do not fit within the gender binary.

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Former Editor-in-Chief | Isaiah Poritz (he/him) (21C) is from Salt Lake City, Utah, and majored in political science.